Since education makes a person more likely to leave your region, how do you justify your investment in human capital?

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Brain Drain: Long Island

I'm curious about the brain drain plaguing the regions surrounding New York City. Is the Big Apple really all that? Long Island is reeling:

Long Island's brain drain is getting worse.

According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the region continues to have the highest rate of decline of residents 25-to-44 years of age in the state. The Island has lost 19 percent, or nearly 160,000, of its residents in that age group since 2000.

To compare, the average rate of decline in New York City was 2.24 percent, and the drop in the other New York suburbs was 14.43 percent, nearly 5 percent below Long Island's precipitous drop.

Nationally, the rate of decline for people between 25-and-44 years of age was 1.93 percent.

The city is where the young professional demographic resides. They are fleeing the burbs. However, NYC is a bit below the national average. There are a number of cities that would be shrinking if not for immigration.

The other part of the story is that Long Island has a lot of the costs of, say, Manhattan, but none of the benefits. Why pay for expensive real estate only to commute into the city? I'm wondering if Rust Belt cities have similar disparities between the core city and the burb periphery in terms of the 25-44 demographic.